Are New Bedford's neighborhood groups a thing of the past?

Curt Brown @CurtBrown_SCT

Saturday

Sep 1, 2018 at 9:40 PMSep 4, 2018 at 5:46 PM

Neighborhoods United is at a crossroads.

The grassroots organization that for decades has brought quality-of-life issues and concerns over criminal activity in New Bedford’s neighborhoods to the forefront has dwindled in membership as it has aged.

The organization has about 10 hardcore, committed volunteers and is led by Jerry Pinto. Although their numbers are small, the group's heart beats strong. They remain committed to improving neighborhoods and sponsoring programs that benefit the community, such as National Night Out and holiday tree lightings.

"We reach out to hundreds and hundreds of kids," Pinto said.

However, as the years have passed, the ways neighbors interact have changed, too.

"People stopped coming to meetings. Everyone is connected nowadays — phone, emails, through the internet, Facebook," Ken Resendes, head of the Bullard Street Neighborhood Association, said at a recent roundtable meeting with neighborhood leaders and a Standard-Times reporter at New Bedford Police Department headquarters. The group also included Pinto, Joy Trudeau and Celeine Saraiva.

Neighborhood groups that have fallen by the wayside include the Parker Street Neighborhood Association, Acushnet Heights, Caroline Street Apartments, Brooklawn Park and the Far North End, members said. They said they are still organized in about a half dozen city neighborhoods.

Asked to describe the condition of Neighborhoods United as a whole, Resendes went so far as to say, "struggling, on life support."

"No young people come to our meetings. It's all older people," said Resendes, who is 68 and has been a neighborhood volunteer for nearly 20 years.

Neighborhoods United isn’t on social media with many of its members unfamiliar with navigating the internet highways. However, all is not lost. Across the city, younger residents who care about their neighborhoods, often with the same mission as Neighborhoods United, are coming together in the digital world.

‘Only as strong …’

Neighborhoods United was a passion for Suzanne Braga, one of its founders and the woman who ran it for 25 years until 2013.

"A lot of it was door-knocking when I knew there was an issue," she said. "What's an issue for one neighborhood is not an issue for another neighborhood."

Sometimes neighborhoods change and she returned to a neighborhood and organized it again, she said. She also worked with the PTOs at the schools. "It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun," she said.

Scott W. Lang, the city's mayor from 2006 to 2012, said Neighborhoods United works with the purpose of moving the city forward.

"You're only as strong as your strongest neighborhood. No one knows their street better than the people who live on it," he said.

Neighborhood groups were the first to recognize the problem of thieves stealing copper from abandoned homes, Lang said. And their concerns about the cleanliness of the city gave rise to volunteer Operation Clean Sweep, which is still going strong.

"It's all driven by neighborhood-action groups. How do you produce the best quality of life for the city? Take a leadership role in a certain area, and you can help the move city forward," he said. "It is a great model. It's important it not go the way of the streetcar."

Police Chief Joseph C. Cordeiro agrees. The Police Department works closely with Neighborhoods United in identifying problems in the neighborhoods — noise, licensing issues around bars and restaurants, and so on.

"Unless it is communicated to us, we don't know to deploy resources and have a conversation with the owners," he said.

Community police officers regularly attend monthly neighborhood meetings as well as those of Neighborhoods United, and NBPD headquarters on Rockdale Avenue is often used for Neighborhoods United activities.

"I'm very appreciative of the work they have done over the last 20 years," he said.

‘Bowling Alone’

Mayor Jon Mitchell likened the problems Neighborhoods United is facing to the demise of social capital that Robert D. Putnam wrote about in his 2000 book "Bowling Alone."

"It's not just here in New Bedford, but everywhere in America," Mitchell said.

He noticed in his last political campaign that more people watched the debates with challenger Charlie Perry online than they did in person.

"There's no silver bullet here," the mayor said. "What's afflicting neighborhood groups are the same set of trends that affect voter turnout, church participation and participation in sports leagues. Showing up matters. Make a difference and have fun in getting to know people.

"Life is not a spectator sport. You have to jump in and that includes making your neighborhoods a better place.”

Ward 6 Councilor Joseph P. Lopes said he attends meetings in his ward and has noticed attendance is not what it once was. He noted that attendance depends on the issue and if there is a guest speaker.

"There is an importance for residents and neighbors to have a meeting and discuss matters," he said. For Lopes, he gets a sense of a problem, enabling him to get to the bottom of it.

What the future holds

Henry Bousquet, the former Ward 3 Councilor and the outgoing leader of the Mount Pleasant Street Neighborhood Group, said he doesn't know if the current format of Neighborhoods United is worth saving.

With people able to contact officials via social media, the organization is not as effective as it was 10 to 15 years ago. "The format is not as viable as it once was," he said.

He envisions Neighborhoods United living online, maybe via Facebook, with city councilors and department leaders' contact information while continuing to host community meetings and events that bring people together.

Steven Froias, who runs New Bedford Now, a local arts and community website, said he believes there is a need for neighborhood groups, but thinks their future is a combination of an online presence and face-to-face meetings. "I think it really has to be a mix," he said.

"Online is useful for sharing information, not useful for solutions. That's where the face-to-face comes in," he said. "I think it's 50-50. Putting a name to the face helps you evaluate their information."

Lost in translation?

John Theriault of Mattapoisett, a social media expert and principal in Truventis, said many cities and towns have community pages online and many organizations are going to digital spaces to encourage participation.

In some cases, these town forums are the primary form of communication that relays breaking news. "It definitely has become a means where people in a town stay in touch with one another."

But these forums have inherent dangers, he said. The information has to be vetted for its truthfulness and accuracy. "There is no context online. No history. It's difficult to vet info," he said.

"Something is lost in translation," said Chief Cordeiro, who has his own problems with the information posted in online forums. "It's not good in building relationships."

Online neighborhood groups like New Bedford Neighborhood Watch, which post police scanner reports on Facebook pages, have popped up in recent years. Lisa Luebking, one of the New Bedford Neighborhood Watch founders, said the group has 13,700 members with more joining every day.

Luebking the group has members from different backgrounds who guide members to a solution. Councilor-at-large Ian Abreu watches the board regularly and responds and interacts with members quickly and members know their thoughts are being heard.

Many people want to be involved, but just don't have the time, she said. "Social media and online forums make information readily available to a wide audience. A lot of individuals have scheduling conflicts that prevent them from going to meetings in person so they are often are out of the loop," Luebking said.

The problems to online neighborhood watch groups can be managed with proper administration, she said.

There's also an app — "SeeClickFix," which can be tailored for any community — that allows residents to report potholes, graffiti, needed tree trimming and other quality-of-life issues to their elected officials and department heads, according to city officials.

"This is a new medium for people to speak up and voice their concerns," Abreu said. "I fully embrace [the Neighborhood Watch] page because I believe that social media is the way people are going and we have to adapt."

Finding a new way

Bousquet said he believes Neighborhoods United's model remains workable. "The model is still viable, but it's changing and evolving. Each ward has different parts and different issues. You can learn the pulse of what is going on in that part of the ward," he said.

Abreu said the future of neighborhood watch groups is a combination of old-school methods and new-school technology. "An online presence and monthly meetings," he said.

That said, Abreu said the value of Neighborhoods United cannot be understated, explaining they have been instrumental in addressing issues of absentee landlords, neighborhood violence, trash and litter and many other concerns.

Councilor-at-large Brian K. Gomes, chairman of the council's Committee on Public Safety, said neighborhood groups have helped to make New Bedford a safer place to live. But there is no going back from social media sites like Facebook, which are now "part of our lives."

Gomes said it’s worthwhile looking into the possibility of some local online groups joining forces with Neighborhoods United to bring new energy to it.

Gomes wants to meet with the leaders of Neighborhoods United to see what the city can do to help. "It's a voice for the people in the neighborhoods," he said.

Mitchell agreed, adding that he has the "utmost appreciation" for the neighborhood leaders in New Bedford and the time they commit to the city's betterment.

"If only we could clone them. It's a testament to their dedication to the city," he said.

Pinto acknowledged they have "to modernize." They are planning to distribute fliers at school open houses during the fall in hopes of creating awareness and increasing membership. "It's a start. Maybe we have to go to the people instead of the people coming to us," he said.

"We have a nice system. We just need the help. There's not enough of us to do it.”

Follow Curt Brown on Twitter @CurtBrown_SCT.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.